KTM’s future plans

Dutch magazine spill the beans on KTM’s strategy for the next two years

Recently, our friends from Nieuwsmotor.nl visited the KTM headquarters in Mattighofen, Austria, and went back home with some very interesting tidbits, skillfully gleaned out of Robert Prielinger, head of R&D for KTM’s streetbikes. We have the extract here.

According to Prielinger, KTM will launch all-new versions of the Super Duke and Adventure bikes in 2012, which will be fitted with brand-new twin-cylinder engines. The 2012/2013 KTM Super Duke is likely to be a very high-tech machine, with a 1200cc V-twin and advanced electronics, including sports-ABS, traction control and ride-by-wire technologies. The off-road-oriented 2012 Adventure would be available with at least two engine sizes – 1200cc/1000cc and 700cc/800cc. Next year, the KTM Duke 690 may be replaced with the Duke 700, fitted with a revised single-cylinder engine and revamped styling. There might also be a more expensive ‘R’ version of the Duke 700, with higher-spec components.

KTM, in collaboration with Bajaj who now owns more than a third of it, will also continue to develop smaller streetbikes for India and other Asian markets and some of these bikes will also make their way to Europe by mid-2011. The two companies have started working in close coordination in the area of technology development. In fact, the 2011 RC8R even uses dual spark plugs in each of its cylinder heads, which is a development of Bajaj’s patented DTSi technology. The two companies will continue to develop small capacity single- and twin-cylinder motorcycle engines for Asian markets, while Bajaj will also introduce the KTM brand in India shortly, which is the world’s second largest motorcycle market.